The fine line between love and hate
by TheRugMaster
Summary: There's a fine line between love and hate- but there's a pretty thick one between love and loathing so she's sure she'll be ok. Lily and Scorpius always hated each other but after a chance meeting six years on could their hate become something more?
1. August

**So, I wrote this story for Lilyre's 4quote challenge. Basically I had these quotes that I had to fit somewhere in my story. Only, mine turned out really long, so I'm posting it in several parts...because I'm far too lazy to type the whole thing up in one go =] It's my first proper Lily/Scorpius one =] Please let me know what you think!**

**Albus**

"Lily, I really think that this is taking it too far."

My little sister- not so little anymore- glared at me. "Well, if you'd done as I asked and fixed me an appointment with Mr. Malfoy I wouldn't have to do this." She said, turning the key in the lock and giving the chain a shake to check that she was firmly attached to the tree.

"I did try!" I protested "But Scorp's Dad isn't the most approachable of guys..."

"Oh whatever Ally." Lily snorted "Do I look sufficiently hippy enough to aggravate the Malfoys?"

I surveyed her. She'd put her lovely red hair into messy dreadlocks and paired this with a ratty bandana, and a long flowery dress and beads.

"Wonderfully stereotypical." I commented cheerfully "Scorp will re-hate you on sight."

My lawyer friend and my, er...free spirited sister had always disliked each other. At first this had bothered me, but now I was much more convinced that all they needed was a good snog-or maybe more- to get over it.

"Great." She said carelessly "Do I really look like I care what 'Scorp' thinks of me?"

As she spoke she was adjusting her dress. "Yes." I said under my breath so that she wouldn't hear, but she did and she scowled at me.

"Your friend is an arrogant git, who is perfectly content to let his father cut down over fifty trees, home to hundreds of bowtruckles-"

"I have to go." I interrupted. Having an eco-warrior/ animal activist as a sister can be such a bore sometimes. "I have a date and I need to feed Bird before I go out. I've got her fish in case she gets jealous of Marco- she loves fish."

Lily rolled her eyes. "You spend _way_ too much time with that cat. It's not normal."

Says the one who's chaining herself to a tree to try and save some twigs with legs I thought, but wisely kept this to myself. She might be a foot shorter than me and tied to a tree, but she still had her wand and she had a deadly aim.

"Bye." I said firmly, starting to walk off and leaving her to shout after me "**Bird may love a fish, signore, but where will they **_**live**_**?"**

**Lily**

Emma and Albus were just as bad as each other. Both of them were convinced that me and _Scorpius Malfoy_- of all people!- secretly liked each other.

I stared at my so-called best friend. "Em," I said impatiently "I haven't seen the guy in what? Five, six years? Plus, I _hated_ him at Hogwarts."

She smiled and waggled her eyebrows knowingly. "There's a fine line between love and hate." She said condescendingly.

"But there's a pretty thick one between love and loathing, so I think I'll be ok." I retorted.

She wasn't listening to me anymore though. "Uh-oh." She said, scrambling to her feet and grabbing her bag. "Here comes trouble. Attractive trouble, but trouble nonetheless."

And with a wink she apparated, leaving me to face the music alone.

"LILY POTTER!"

Ah, I recognised that yell. It was the sound of Scorpius Malfoy's arrogant arse being handed to him on a plate in front of Arial Zabini in fourth year. It was the sound of Professor Longbottom's annoyed shouting after another loud row in the dining hall with our esteemed head boy. It was the sound of-

-a git who had the nerve to thrust some sort of legal document in my face while also being rude enough to look like a model as he did so. Bloody hell.

When did Scorpius get _hot_?

"Miss Potter, are you even listening to me?"

"Sorry," I said sweetly "I was distracted by the size of your head. I didn't think that it was possible for one to inflate that much, but there we go. You learn something new everyday."

"Get off the land now." He said flatly. "I'm not going to ask again: I will call security, and they will escort you off and we will press charges."

"Excuse me," I said indignantly. "Your father is going to demolish the habitat of thousands of bowtruckles-"Nothing wrong with a bit of embellishment "- without a second thought and for no valid reason. _And _you haven't asked me to leave once." I added.

There was a pause. Then he took a deep breath. "First of all, those trees were grown to be cut down. Second of all, you're trespassing on private property, so actually there's no need for me to be polite. And finally, I _did_ ask you to leave, but you were to busy ogling me to listen."

"Ogling, ok." I snorted sceptically.

"Now, are you going to leave voluntarily or not?"

I didn't have a shred of doubt that the Malfoys wouldn't press charges. I just didn't care. I looked up at him and smirked. "Not."

**Scorpius**

I watched Lily Potter get manhandled by one of our big burly security men and forcefully ejected off the premises with little pleasure. She was only little- five foot two, if that- and Bryce looked simply too large to be holding her.

"Silly girl." Mother stood next to me, shaking her head. "Didn't she think we'd press charges because her brother is your friend, or because her father's Harry Potter?"

I turned away. "Lily Potter doesn't think, full stop." I told her bluntly.

Lily Potter had always been hot headed. She never paused to _think_; she just went ahead and did whatever popped into her head. Or said whatever random comment popped in there- it had been the reason for many detentions at school. She always raced ahead. She was so...so...attractive.

I realised that I couldn't stop thinking about her; that she'd been on my mind all day.

The last time I'd seen her was when Al and I had finished Hogwarts. She'd been a skinny little fifteen year old at the time. She's grown up...a _lot_. I'd tried to stay cool, but had probably just come across as arrogance. Albus always said that he'd first thought I was an arrogant git when he first met me- he didn't realise I was _shy_.

It had been difficult acting nonchalant around her earlier. I'd been able to see right down her shirt too, which hadn't been _too_ distracting.

I groaned to myself and lay back on my bed. Why, why, _why_? I asked myself. This was _Lily Potter_, my friend's annoying kid sister, who'd I hated since I was about twelve! Why couldn't it be someone else? Why couldn't it be someone easy?

Well, I thought morosely. I suppose **that's why they call them crushes. If the were easy they'd call them something else. **


	2. October

ALBUS

"And they didn't say why they'd dropped the charges?"

Lily stubbed her cigarette out on my windowsill and I threw a pillow at her.

"What?"

"Don't stub your fag out on there," I said crossly "I've got a party here tomorrow."

"I know, I'm coming to it." She yawned "I'm going to be a fairy by the way, will you make me some wings."

"How last minute do you want to leave it?" I asked incredulously.

She turned from the window and put her hands together in a praying gesture. "Please." She whined "You're my favourite gay brother."

"I'm your only gay brother." I pointed out with a sigh. "Did I mention that Scorp was coming tomorrow?"

"What?" She flipped her hair: a nervous gesture for Lily. "So?"

"Well, maybe I could ask him why the Malfoy's let you off."

The tension seeped out of her and she laughed disparagingly "Don't bother Al. I don't want him to think that I'm grateful or anything."

I eyed her suspiciously- her cheeks were going pink.

I pointed triumphantly at her. "You like him!" I crowed.

"No I don't!" she protested, too quickly to be believed.

"Yes you do."

"No I don't."

"Just admit it." I urged her "And **then I shall have to make you wings**- you'll be the prettiest fairy there and Scorp won't be able to resist!"

"Fine." She said curtly. "I'll ask Emma to make them."

As she flounced out I couldn't resist yelling "DENIAL!" after her, even though I knew she'd get revenge.

LILY

"Emma, pass me the vodka."

She did as I asked, but she didn't look at me. No, she was too busy flirting with an already drunk James to bother with _me_.

I poured my drink and turned around...only to walk smack into the one person that I'd been hoping to avoid: Scorpius bloody Malfoy.

He was dressed up as a vampire and the black clothes made his skin look even paler than usual. He also looked a little worse for wear, probably due to the bottle of firewiskey in his hand.

"Er, hi." I said, annoying myself with my nervousness. It was only _Malfoy_ for god's sake. I instructed myself to calm down. My body ignored my brain and insisted on going jelly like anyway.

"Hi, Lily Last time I saw you was in court."

I raised my eyebrows. "Yeah, well that's over now." I said firmly, trying to judge how much he'd had to drink.

Scorpius nodded "Yeah- it was difficult persuading Father to drop it, but I succeeded in the end." He took a swig from the bottle, while I tried to process what he'd just said. I felt frozen to the spot. Did he just say what I thought he said? _He_ got me off? "-And of course he's very anti-potter, he lives totally in the past-"

"You mean- _you_ made sure the charges were dropped?" I was thunderstruck. Also my heart was doing this weird fluttering thing that was distracting me.

He nodded slowly. "The trees are still going though, I couldn't stop that. D'you want to dance?"

Wow. Rapid topic change there. I knew that dancing with Scorpius would just prove to Albus that I liked him, but it was the least I could do after what he'd done for me.

The song slipped into a ballad and Scorpius slid his arms around my waist, while I draped mine around his neck. We revolved slowly, and then – I don't quite know how it happened- we were kissing.

It felt as though I'd never been kissed before, it was so fresh and new and scary. Everything I knew, everything I'd experienced faded into the background as I gave myself up to the feeling.

SCORPIUS

I woke with a pounding head, a dry mouth and feeling sick. I was also naked- the unmistakeable sign of a hangover. For me anyway.

I closed my eyes, getting snatches of last night. Kissing on the dance floor. Kissing in a back room. Getting kicked out by Albus. Kissing in the street. Holding someone tightly and bringing them back to my flat.

I swung my legs over the side of the bed and cautiously stood up. My clothes were in a trail from the door to the bed. I spotted something on top of the cupboard and summoned it. It was a small lacy pink bra, and I had a vague recollection of tossing it behind me.

The problem was, I was having trouble remembering the face. I'd drunk quite a lot, even for me.

"Hello?" I called out. "Anyone here?"

There was no reply, so I assumed that she- I hoped fervently that it was a she, but with that much alcohol in the system, who knew? - had sneaked out first thing. I was quite relieved. One night stands are fine, it's when they think it means more I freak out.

I turned back to my bed, yawning, then froze. On the pillow was one long strand of deep red hair. Hair that could only belong to one girl. A girl whose face was now clearly in my mind, the memory of the taste of her lips very vivid...

_Lily Potter._

_Oh shit._

**_A/N Hello. Er...sorry it's taken me so long to update. No excuses =/ I just suck =] And I know that the quote bit wasn't good, but it's much better in the next chapter, promise ;)_**


	3. December

**A/N Next chapter is the last one. Hope you enjoy this and, please, review!! =] **

ALBUS

"James, for god's sake STOP SMOKING-"I came out of my bedroom to find that Lily had also lit one up. "For god's sake. not you too. Don't you know that these things _kill_ you?"

"Yes."

"Oh, stop moping around." I said impatiently.

"I'm not moping." They said at the same time. They were so similar.

I sat down. "James, Emma will be back after Christmas, so you've got nothing to worry about. God." I rolled my eyes "I never thought I'd see the day when James Potter would be so in love he'd be acting like a lovesick teenage girl."

"In love with his kid sister's best friend no less." inserted Lily.

"And Lily-"I turned to her. She snorted.

"Look, Ally, I know what you're going to say and no, I am not moping about Scorpius Malfoy. We slept together once and I realised in the morning that it was a mistake. _So drop it."_

She had that 'or else' tone that I recognised from when we were kids. The one that preceded me getting my arse kicked.

So I dropped it. Quickly.

"Anyway, you two, quit smoking and get out of my flat. Marco will be here soon and I'm planning on getting to the Maldives this side of Christmas."

They both got up. Lily hugged me and James punched me lightly on the shoulder.

"Have a nice time, Ally." He said affectionately.

"Yeah, don't get burnt. God, I wish I was going." said Lily jealously "All I've got to look forward to is lunch with our darling mother."

"I'm sure it'll be fine." I said soothingly, but untruthfully. Lily and Mum had never seen eye to eye. On anything. Ever.

My brother and sister linked arms and apparated. I'd lied to them- Marco wasn't picking me up for at least another two hours. No, I had someone else to see first.

I was going to see Scorpius.

LILY

"...and we've got a meal with Zacharias Smith and his wife, and _of course_ your father doesn't want to go, but the papers have already picked up on it so now we have to..."

Mum droned on about her social calendar as if I was actually interested. I don't understand her love of fame and 'keeping up appearances'. When she was sixteen she was fighting terrorists; she cared about important things like that. Now when I try to tell her about the issues that are important to me she brushes them off and worries more about my hair. What the hell happened to her?

"So, how is everything with you?" she frowned. "No more criminal convictions? Mum nearly had a heart attack when I told her."

I noticed that she didn't say anything about Uncle George, who had nearly bust a gut laughing when he heard, as she prattled on about disgracing the family.

"God, Mum." I huffed impatiently. "That was two months ago. _And _the charges were dropped. And it's not even going to be on any sort of permanent record- one of the many advantages of being the daughter of the _Chosen One_..."

There was a pause. She looked at me over her teacup. "Al mentioned that you seemed a bit down. What's wrong?"

Bloody Albus. I'll kill him. I managed to muster up a smile. "Nothing." I lied.

"Come on, Lily, you can tell me. I know we don't always get on, but I'm your mum. You can tell me anything."

I looked into her deep brown eyes, identical to mine. About the only thing that _is_ the same, I thought.

I took a deep breath. _Here goes._ "Mum how do you know if you're in love?"

"I thought it might be something like that." She smiled and I could suddenly see the excited teenager with a crush on the famous Harry Potter. For all her faults I know she really loves Dad; and that's why I can ask her this.

"**Do you ever just put your arms out and spin and spin and spin? Well, that's what love is like; everything inside of you tells you to stop before you fall, but for some reason you just keep going."**

I stared at Mum, and she smiled, though her gaze was far away. "You know you're in love when you feel dizzy like that when you're around him. You know you're in love when you can't quite catch your breath. And, most of all you just _know_ you're in love, you can feel it in your instincts."

"Oh." I couldn't think of anything to say. The falling? That's how I felt when I danced with Scorpius at the party.

"Is it Dylan?"

"Dyl-? Oh-"I had forgotten that I'd told Mum I was seeing a guy called Dylan to get her off my back about getting a boyfriend. "No." I said "It's someone else. Its-" I hesitated, mentally stuttering over Scorpius' name. I wasn't quite ready to admit it out loud yet. "It's over with Dylan."

Mum gestured for the bill. "Well, whoever it is, don't let them slip through your fingers because if you do, you'll always regret it."

SCORPIUS

I was alone, down by the banks of the river that ran through the garden of Malfoy Manor. I'd always loved it down here. When I was sixteen I'd brought Arial here. She thought it was boring. In fact she hated it.

_I bet __**Lily**__ wouldn't hate it_.

I banished the thought quickly, but the damage was done. That visit from Albus has just dredged up all the feelings for Lily that I'd determinedly tried to bury.

He said that Lily had been pining for me. I highly doubted it. _She_ was the one that had run off after we slept together. _She_ was the one that avoided me and refused to talk to me when I finally got her to stay in the same room as me for two minutes. _She_ wasn't the one who had spent two months trying to squash feelings that were rapidly growing into love-

_What? Love? Well...I suppose..._

The funny thing was I didn't feel surprised to realise that I was in love with Lily. Maybe it wasn't so much realising as accepting.

Either way it made me stop mid-step. I'd been pacing up and down the banks. Now I was frozen by my thoughts.

Then, in a split second, I'd made my choice. What the hell, I had nothing to lose. And I still had that address that Al had insisted I took...Lily's address.

I twisted into the darkness, clutching the paper and repeating the contents in my head as hard as I could. By the time I reached her flat I was running, determined to do this. I hammered on the front door, panting.

"Hang on!" I heard her yell, and then the door was pulled open.

She stared at me.

I stared back.

She looked so beautiful. Her hair was in loose ringlets and she had a tight purple dress on. Those hazel eyes that had been haunting me for weeks were widened in surprise.

"What are you doing here?" She didn't sound displeased or angry. Just startled.

"I'm sorry." I said breathlessly. "I just- I just-"

I was losing my nerve and with it, her, so I forced myself to act. I put my hands on either side of her face, bent down and kissed her.

When we broke apart there was silence, though the music was playing and people were talking and laughing in the room behind her. She put her fingers to her lips in a daze; as if she couldn't comprehend that mine had been there, just seconds before.

"I'm sorry." I said lamely. Why was I apologising? Who apologises for being in love? "But I think I'm in love with you." The words began to spill uncontrollably out of my mouth. "**And it's not because I'm lonely and it's not because it's New Years Eve. I came here tonight because when you realise you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."**

More silence. I began to feel as though I had a made a huge mistake in telling her. What if she didn't feel the same way? What if she really felt that sleeping with me had been a catastrophic mistake?

Had I just made an utter fool of myself? Was she angry with me for kissing her? Was she going to hex me?

And why didn't she answer?


	4. January

The countdown began, but neither of them noticed.

_Ten, nine, eight_.

She lowered her hand, ignoring the party behind her, focussing only on the man in front of her. "You- love me?" she repeated, hesitantly.

_Seven, six_.

Scorpius had a bizarre feeling that she had to answer him before the countdown ended, or the magic, the connection would be gone. Until midnight, like Cinderella. "I love you Lily." He said again.

_Five, four._

Lily was having difficulty forming words and coherent thoughts. The feelings broke lose from the dam that she had built and they were flooding through her.

_Three, two._

Suddenly he didn't need her to say anything. He could see it in her eyes, the surprising rush of emotions, the unexpected burst of love that seemed to have exploded out of his heart, mirrored in her intense gaze.

**One.**

The thinking stopped with the sound of the gong signalling a new year, a new life- if she could grab it fast enough and hold onto him tight enough. She wanted him, and she wanted him forever. She threw her arms around him, pulling him close, dizzy and determined.

"I love you too." She breathed into his ear. He wrapped his arms around her waist and, slowly, gently, with none of the urgency of before, kissed her. He didn't need urgency, he didn't need to convince her anymore. He had the rest of his life to kiss her like that.

Around them, people were shouting the numbers and laughing, but their voices sounded far away, as though they were underwater, Lily and Scorpius in their own little bubble. And neither would ever let the bubble pop.

**A/N Hello! Wow, never thought I'd get round to typing this up- hope you enjoyed it! I just want to thank those who reviewed and also thanks to Lilyre for setting the challenge that would finally allow me to pin down an idea thats been fluttering around in my head for ages! Please review and let me know what you thought!! TheRugMaster xXx**


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